West Newsmagazine 3-21-18

42
MARCH 21, 2018
WEST NEWSMAGAZINE
CARDINALS SALUTE 2018
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By WARREN MAYES
If there’s one baseball topic guaranteed
to start a good back-and-forth among Cardinals
fans, it’s where first baseman Matt
Carpenter should bat in the lineup.
Carpenter likes hitting leadoff. But he
doesn’t decide the lineup. That’s Mike
Matheny’s job and Carpenter takes it all in
stride.
“Wherever Mike tells me to,” Carpenter
said about where he will hit this season.
“That’s something I’ve said 1,000 times
and people still don’t believe me. They
know I’m knocking on Mike’s door every
day begging to hit leadoff. I’m just not. I
end up there every year because that’s kind
of how the chips fall.
“I think, and I’ve had long conversations
with Mike this offseason about this,
this year more than ever that we have a
lot of guys who can do that [lead off] and
do it well. Between Dexter [Fowler] and
Tommy [Pham] and event Kolten [Wong],
there’s more than enough guys for that
position. I think maybe you’ll see a new
face there. Time will tell. I’ll do whatever
is asked of me.”
This spring, Carpenter has been battling
back tightness. Last year, the threetime
All-Star also suffered from back and
oblique soreness. Matheny said he believes
Carpenter’s preseason injuries can be
attributed to his tenacious spring regimen.
“This is like Disney World for a baseball
rat – spring training,” Matheny said, “You
come down, you can work all you want,
the sun is shining, you use these beautiful
facilities, you’ve got every single coach
and every trainer at your disposal.”
At least the injury will force Carpenter to
get some rest. Matheny said that might help
stave off fatigue later in the season. “This
could be one of those blessings in disguise,”
he said.
A career .277 hitter, Carpenter experienced
a dip last year when he hit .241 with
23 homers and 69 RBIs. Shoulder issues
derailed the second half of Carpenter’s
2017 campaign. Thankfully, they didn’t
require offseason surgery.
This year, he’s looking for better things but
said he doesn’t think he hits better at leadoff.
“There [are] natural flows in the season.
You go up. You go down. You have highs.
You have lows. A lot of that is circumstantial.
So I don’t buy the whole ‘I can’t hit as
well in other positions’ talk that comes up,”
Carpenter said. “I just don’t think I’ve had
enough opportunity in those other spots to
be able to give a good explanation for it.
Going forward, I’m excited to have that
chance and we’ll see how it plays out.”
WESTNEWSMAGAZINE.COM
Carpenter predicts he may not
leadoff in talent-packed lineup
Matt Carpenter
[Lou Countryman photo]
He said he takes pride in his ability to
draw walks. That means he’s on base as a
potential RBI for someone.
“Really, when you have the ability to get on
base, you put pressure on the opposing pitching
staff,” Carpenter said. “We’ve got three
guys and, however it falls, we can get on base
really well. It will put pressure on pitching
staffs to throw strikes, not to walk us.
“When they worry about walking guys,
they leave balls over the middle and you
can clean up on that.”
That good lineup could help propel the
Cardinals back into the postseason.
“The St. Louis Cardinals are expected to
be in the playoffs,” Capenter said. “With
the way our division is, I wouldn’t imagine
for a second our organization would stand
pat and not make efforts to get up back in
the playoffs.”
At 32, Carpenter is one of the “old” guys
on the team. He doesn’t mind at all.
“Yeah, my wife and I were looking at the
roster and I’m one of the old guys now,”
Carpenter said. “I feel like I just got here.
That’s the way the game is now. Time flies
as we all know. It’s fun to have these young
players who bring so much excitement.”
That excitement only gets sweeter in
October.
“Look, every year we go into the spring
with the thought of winning a World Series.
For two straight years, we’ve been short of
getting into postseason,” Carpenter said.
“We’ve got a lot of guys used to playing
deep into October so that hunger is driving
us this year. There’s a lot of new faces who
haven’t experienced a lot of the postseason
some of us have.
“There’s enough guys like myself, and
Adam [Wainwright] and Yadi [Molina]
who are pushing these guys to perform and
compete and, hopefully, that group will
start heading to where we want to go – and
that’s October.”